A Little Different
by Mable
Summary: Eight and Five are both shaken when they learn what One and Two have been doing behind closed doors. However, when Five doesn't recover quick enough Eight decides to step in, and perhaps take a cue from his Leader. 5x8, 1x2. Oneshot


**Mable: This fic is a request for my loyal requester and reader, Allyson. Allyson, I hope you enjoy it, and I'm sorry it took a few days to get finished. ^-^ I don't own 9, Enjoy!**

_**A Little Different**_

Eight knew there was going to be some sort of trouble when Nine and Five started coming straight at him. Nine and Five were trademarks of a 'do-gooder'. Of course, that would be if 'do-gooders' were incessantly trying to do the right thing, even when things needed to be left as they were. In that aspect, Nine sometimes annoyed Eight by his constant efforts to call him out on everything he did, which was confusing as the two got along just fine when these efforts weren't involved. Five was a different story.

Five clearly didn't want to be confronting Eight and kept insisting to Nine that he was sure 'it' was nothing. All Eight could think of was that this had to involve Six somehow. Even though Eight had stopped his taunting of Six it seemed that everyone still treated him as though he was still hounding the Artist. He was willing to ignore it enough, but it could occasionally be annoying that everyone suspected him. When Nine stopped in front of him though he was a little confused when the male asked, "Where's One?"

He raised a brow in confusion, "He's in his room." At this moment Nine turned to storm off and Eight suddenly felt the need to stop him. After all, One had pointedly said that he wanted to be alone, and so Eight walked straight over and practically stood right in front of the two. "Hold up. He's busy." He instructed, crossing his arms in a relaxed way, but to anyone unknowing it could suggest that he was being intimidating. Not that Nine could be intimidated when he was in such a focus, "We need to talk to him about Two, right now."

The Guard was still confused and asked, "What? Two?" Nine huffed a little and Five explained, "We're… We're a little worried about Two. He's been disappearing recently and we can't find him." The Guard gave his own suspicious look to Nine, "So what's One got to do with this?" The zippered male then spoke, "He said he needed to see One, and he's been seeing One a lot more than usual." Then his brows furrowed more in clear frustration, "This wouldn't be the first time that One wanted Two to disappear."

Immediately Eight rolled his optics in an exasperated way, "You still on about that? Two told you both that One was blowing smoke. Nothing was going on." Still Nine was skeptical, "I believed him, but now it's getting more and more difficult. You haven't noticed how weird One's been treating Two?" Then added in, perhaps to provoke Eight, "If anyone should have noticed it, and would defend him, it would be you." The Guard was provoked and now started to become intimidating with a growing glare.

"I don't know what you're trying to start," He began threateningly, "But nothing's going on. Yeah, they've been quiet about something, but maybe it's something else. Maybe's One's checking up with Two to make sure nothing's going on with you." He threw it right back at the zippered male and was just about prepared to throw Nine himself out of the way. Unfortunately Five stepped in upon seeing the tension, "Let's just all calm down." He said in his normal, calm down. He stood between them both and made sure the two wouldn't begin to start something greater.

Thankfully neither Nine nor Eight really wanted to fight over top of Five. Nine being his best friend and Eight not wanting to end up accidently hurting the one eyed one. Recently he had been a little more hesitant towards touching him, perhaps because of the Incident alerting him to how fragile they all really were. So when the one eyed one called the fight to a halt the physical aspect silenced immediately. However, the verbal one still stewed, and Nine now spoke, "Two's been gone since last night. We've searched everywhere except One's room."

Still Eight was determined and put an arm out, "Ain't happening. I don't care what One's doing, he said he wants to be alone, and I'm not going to be the one barging in on him." The zippered male looked to the buttoned one who exhaled and turned to Eight. "Eight, please. We're worried about Two. If it makes it any better you can be the one who looks in and makes sure that-." That's when Nine suddenly strode around Eight and started heading into the hall. Eight immediately turned on him and followed his tracks.

"Eight! Nine!" Five called desperately from behind, "Let's not- can't we just -?" At this, Eight responded with a blunt, "No." And continued onwards. He nearly caught up until Nine suddenly arrived at, and burst into, One's bedroom, "One, we need-…" He cut off into immediate silence. At this moment the Guard reached the doorway and grabbed ahold of Nine's shoulder. That was, until he saw what Nine was staring at, and Five soon did as well.

There, in the dim light of One's bedroom, there were clearly two figures under the blankets. Now they had tore away from each other, or One had, but it was evident that they had been asleep together. While it didn't explain why they were sleeping in it did explain one mystery that all three were stuck in the middle of. Because there in bed with One laid Two as well. Both of the older Stitchpunks looked horrified with optics as wide as possible and eventually Two blurted out, "Five, I- This is- We were just-!" To see Two stutter so heavily only indicated to Five that it was exactly what it seemed.

One managed to stumble off of the bed and stand beside it, holding the blanket to him as though he was shielding himself, though this reflex was mostly because of him being without a cape and not because he had anything to hide. Or, at least, Eight in particular was hoping he didn't. If anything would actually scar Eight it would be seeing One open and just the thought of him being open and in bed with Two left him dumbstruck. In fact, the three watchers couldn't speak at all, while the two who were caught sputtered out whatever they could.

"This is not what it appears to be! Two was merely trying to properly show- to get rest and I was not yet awake- and we were discussing-!" One's excuse was better than Two's but not by much. Finally Five jumped back and disappeared into the hall. Then Eight was brought to reality, "We're just going to go now." He instructed as coolly as he could before grabbing onto Nine's shoulders and dragging him out of the room. The zippered male was still somewhat in shock and just followed the Guard's direction. One and Two didn't stop either.

Once in the hall Eight and Nine separated and Eight looked to the shorter, "Until they say otherwise that never happened, alright?" It wasn't an aggressive command and was more of a bit of a plea to which Nine nodded in alarm, "I… Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck and slowly headed on his way. Now that he knew the truth he was clearly embarrassed while Eight himself headed back into the throne room. Soon he was sitting back on his stool at his post with his weapons and sharpening stone, ready to forget it had ever happened.

Though he couldn't resist the small smirk that passed through. He had a feeling something like this was going on between One and Two. Just a little bit of an instinct feeling and, to be honest, it was just a little hilarious that they barged in on the two. Seeing his boss so unhinged was actually very comedic. However, he moved on, and the morning progressed. One didn't leave his room for most of the day and Nine seemed to somehow return back to normal behavior, if not over-compensating for the still new event.

The day passed normally until around afternoon when suddenly Two appeared. Of course some of the others passed by, but Two was one of the two that Eight didn't expect to see. The Inventor still looked remarkably shy and was actually wearing a lot of clothing for no reason. He had on his winter jacket, which hug down to nearly his knees and was much too warm for the current weather, and was wearing one of his candle topped hats. He had a few of them now in case he came upon losing one again.

"Good afternoon, Eight." Two spoke with a friendly fashion as though he was fine, even though the mass amounts of clothes were symbolizing some type of insecurity. "You are just the man I wanted to see." And for a second Eight slipped and his face contorted in absolutely shock, hoping that he wasn't about to get some sort of in depth conversation about whatever was going on between One and Two. Instead Two explained his situation, "After our… What happened earlier I went to explain to Five that it was alright. To apologize for not telling him sooner."

Eight nodded to coax the other to continue as he began to sharpen his knife further. "But I can't find him anywhere. I have already asked Six and the twins, but nobody seems to know where he went. Have you seen him?" The Guard paused before shaking his head, "He bolted when we were in the hall. I know he didn't go down the lift, it was still up when I got back, but haven't seen him around." This concerned the shorter male further, "I see… Perhaps the Watchtower then. If he didn't leave then that's the last possible option. Thank you, Eight."

He turned to leave and Eight felt the need to speak, "You know, Two, I already knew." Immediately he wanted to smack himself because if anything the comment probably made Two even mote paranoid. He corrected it, "I had a feeling. It doesn't bother me none what you're doing, what One's doing." Eight suddenly had the urge to say 'Who he's doing' and suppressed it and the smirk that followed. The Inventor turned back to him and gave a gentle smile, "You don't know how much those words mean, Eight. It's been rather… Hard for us."

"Why are you two keeping it quiet?" Eight asked, pure curiosity, and unlike One who would abruptly shoot the Guard down Two was willing to explain, "One and I have been together for quite a while, but we were afraid that the others wouldn't be so willing to accept what we have, so we have been meeting in secret." Eight nodded, "Makes sense." Then added in, "I can't vouch for Five, but Nine got over it pretty quick. He's going to do that weird thing he does where he acts like a klutz, but he's not angry."

"Oh good!" Two exhaled in relief, "That's one more Stitchpunk we don't have to worry about! Well, I'm off to find Five, thank you again." Two did seem genuinely thankful and Eight gave a nod as the two parted. Now alone Eight thought less on One and Two and more on Five's disappearance. "_He couldn't have gone that far. It's like he dissolved into the wall of something." _He set his knife to the side as dwelled on it. _"He was standing right there and he went back somewhere, but couldn't tell which way he went down the hall, and…"_

His thoughts cut off as it hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew where Five was. He pondered whether or not to confront Five directly or wait for Two and finally decided to do so with how much this involved himself. With an exhale of tiredness he set his weapon to the side and stood before entering the hall once again. One's room was one of first doors and given a wide area to itself, but on the exact opposite side of the hall was another doorway, Eight's own. He pushed the curtain open and stared into the dimly lit room.

Sure enough a patched face looked upwards at him. Five was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands staring at the floor. His bag laid beside him on the floor and it looked that he had just been waiting there. "Eight…" He spoke quietly, his voice almost a whisper, and Eight spoke, "Two's out there looking for you." The Healer flinched visibly and Eight waved his hand in dismissal, "Relax. I'm not going out there to tell him you're here. You are." He was dead serious and Five gave him a weary look, "Eight, I… I can't face him yet."

The Guard leaned against his own wall casually, "Because?" He clearly wanted answers and, considering that Five was in his room, Five was in no state to deny him such answers. He felt somewhat open underneath Eight's gaze and confessed, "Because… It's just so sudden." He rubbed his forehead tiredly, "What am I going to say to him? It's going to be different from now on." Eight wasn't exactly impressed by the answer and clearly asked, "Different? What's different about it? From what Two said, they've been doing it for a while."

This struck a chord in the smaller who inhaled sharply at the comment and the Guard felt the need to question, "What's so weird about this whole thing? They're just messing around. Is it because he's with One?" Five explained, "Yes. Well, no, not because it's One, but because it's…" Then he added quieter, "Because _he's _with _him_." The larger caught on and surprisingly felt like he was about to become defensive massively. "Yeah? You don't like two males being together?"

"No!" Five insisted, hands raising in defense, "No, no. Not like that. I'm just… It's just strange. I didn't know two males could be together like that. I thought it was…" He trailed off and Eight spoke, "Yeah, it's new to me too." Then turned more strict, "But you've got Two acting weird. He's wearing a bunch of clothes and walking around looking for you on the verge of panic." At this the Healer looked guilty, "He's… He's wearing his winter clothes, isn't he?" The Guard blinked, "That mean something?"

Five nodded slowly, "It does. When Two's feeling… uncomfortable he wears a lot of clothes. Though I do it sometimes. Remember the hat?" The larger smirked, "You mean the orange bandana?" Five almost felt completely embarrassed thinking about it, "Yeah. After I lost my eye I felt a little… empty head-wise." As he explained it he perked and became more and more amused at the memory, "So I started wearing it to distract from my patch. Two does it sometimes to distract from his height, but when he's upset he starts wearing the winter coat."

This seemed strange enough to Eight but considering that he used the magnet when he was stressed he wasn't willing to point it out. "Empty head aside," Five began, "I know these types of relationships aren't common. I need to be supportive." The Healer stood and the Guard sat down on the side of the bed instead. He was suddenly feeling a bit curious and couldn't help it. As the one eyed one approached the curtain he stopped him, "You never thought about getting together with someone?"

Maybe it seemed weird that Eight of all Stitchpunks would ask this, but there was a hidden motive. Actually, Eight himself had mentally questioned if he was ever going to get some sort of a mate, but soon had settled on a distinct 'no'. He's wasn't actually desirable and the only eligible female was Seven. The twins were much too young to be possible mates. Five looked back slowly, almost shyly, "Well… I- I don't know. Once, with Seven, but not… I'm not really mate material. I'm sort of damaged goods."

That was supposed to be a joke, but Eight didn't like the term, and he didn't like how honestly Five stated it. Almost as though he fully believed in it. Eight stood right back up and stopped the smaller. He wasn't sure why he was so determined to reassure the Healer, but he just knew he didn't like to see him in this state, catching his shoulder and coaxing him to turn around. "Hey," He began, "If anyone's damaged goods it's Nine. One probably scarred him for life back there." A comment to ease the mood before reassurance, "Nothing's wrong with the patch. It looks fine."

Five's optic widened as he was surprised that Eight actually would say something like this. His face grew warm in shyness as he suddenly realized exactly how close they were standing. Even if Eight didn't notice it, this was relatively close, and Five himself felt just a little unsteady. Especially with the relationship talk that just occurred between them. "I, uh, thanks." He responded in his quiet tone and gave the other a small smile. Then Eight added in, "And it's not that big of a deal, this Two thing. They figured out how to get past 'em being the same. Guess we should too."

"I guess." Five murmured meekly before adding, "And… and this might be a good thing. You know, there a few of us and only one Seven, and most of don't really feel that way about Seven, and so maybe it could- maybe it could give some of us who want something more chances, especially since, you know, the barrier is gone." It was remarkably suggestive and he knew it, but he decided not to take it back. Eight caught on to whatever small suggestion Five was making. "Yeah. I'm kind of wondering what it's like." Five pulse started to pound as Eight said that.

"Well, umm…" His nerves began to give, "I'm not sure how we could… I mean, it isn't like, well…" His optic went down to the floor below and Eight suddenly felt encouraged to make a move. Just seeing Five standing here acting so unsure, doing that attractive thing he did when he was being shy, made Eight feel a little strange and he decided to take a note from his Leader on this one. After all, One himself had made the decision to make a move regardless of gender.

The Guard let his hand massage on Five's shoulder a little before gently pulling him closer. Their lips met in a chaste meeting and Eight took a gentle lead in trying not to scare off Five who didn't immediately respond. He doubted that Five had even been kissed before or had kissed anyone before. Eight himself had once tried it a long time ago with a confused Seven, but didn't count it as anything. Especially nothing like this. Seven didn't release that soft gasp upon contact and leaned in hesitantly with softer lips.

After a brief time Eight pulled back yet again and the two just stood there in the quiet afterglow. It was still confusing and awkward, but Five got a small smile still. "It's certainly different, but I like different." Eight smirked a little, "'Different' is the only thing I do good." The Healer clutched his hands together shyly, "Umm… Maybe I should go find Two… And maybe after that we can try this again?" Eight agreed and Five headed out the door to go find Two. This was certainly going to be something different for the both of them.

Eight would have to remember to thank One sometime.

_**FIN**_

**Mable: I'm still taking request and currently have two others requesting fics. Feel free to PM or review with a request if you would like one. I hope everyone enjoyed!**


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